Mythological background of the annual customs in Moravice

Smještene na pola puta između Zagreba i Rijeke, u šumovitom Gorskom kotaru, Moravice su mjesto unutar kojeg se kulturni, vjerski i društveni život uvelike oblikovao s obzirom na specifičnosti mjesta. Pravoslavno i manjinski katoličko stanovništvo u ovoj ruralnoj sredini prati julijanski ili gregorijanski kalendar i prema njima obilježavaju godišnje običaja u toj sredini. Budući da se, za razliku od gradskih sredina, tradicionalno slavljenje Božića, Uskrsa i drugih godišnjih običaja donekle zadržalo, cilj ovog diplomskog rada bio je analizirati te običaje i utvrditi koji su se praslavenski elementi zadržali u njima. Praslavenski običaji koji su pratili godišnji tok prirode svoje su temelje imali u praslavenskoj religiji, a čiji su se tragovi, u različitim količinama, zadržali i nakon pokrštavanja Slavena na ovim prostorima. Stoga se u ovom diplomskom radu analiziraju sve navedene sastavnice radi potpunog razumijevanja godišnjih običaja koji se danas izvode u Moravicama i njihovih praslavenskih korijena.Located halfway between Zagreb and Rijeka, in the wooded area of Gorski Kotar, Moravice is a place within which cultural, religious and social life has largely taken shape given the specifics of the place. The Orthodox and minority Catholic population in this rural area follows the Julian or Gregorian calendar and according to them they celebrate the annual customs in that area. Since, unlike urban areas, the traditional celebration of Christmas, Easter and other annual customs has been somewhat preserved, the aim of this thesis was to analyze these customs and determine which Proto-Slavic elements remained in them. The Proto-Slavic customs that followed the annual course of nature had their foundations in the Proto-Slavic religion, and whose traces, in various quantities, remained even after the baptism of the Slavs in this area. Therefore, in this thesis, all the above components are analyzed in order to fully understand the annual customs that are performed today in Moravice and their Proto-Slavic roots